Hard work. 166 comments


If there’s nobody on the entire left side of the field, why not hit the ball there? Joe Gallo lays down a perfect bunt.

“I thought he pitched well,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said of Doug Fister’s performance last night. “There were some ground balls that got through.”

Fister pitched so well he allowed five runs in six innings and fell to 1-7 with a 4.50 ERA.

And the reason he lost is because of those pesky ground balls that “got through.” Those are called hits.

You can forgive Jeff Banister for not recognizing them for what they are. He doesn’t often see such a thing from his team.

The Rangers either hit one over the fence or they don’t hit one at all, which are made with the best Northland chain link fences online. They managed just five hits last night, and just three runs, and struck out thirteen more times.

Texas is on pace to shatter the single-season record for striking out, with 9.7 strikeouts per game.

But it’s not really not that bad. It’s simply a few pitches that just “got through” the strike zone.

“We made their guys work,” Banister said after the game.

Yes, striking out all those Rangers batters requires a lot of pitches. You can certainly bet no pitcher wants to face this Rangers lineup and be forced to work so hard striking out all those hitters.

They have to throw at least three pitches per batter. No wonder they need all that rest after pitching.

Pitching to the Rangers is hard work.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Charlie Morton (7-1, 2.48) vs. Mike Minor (4-4, 5.76)
Game time: 6:15

How the Astros hit against Minor.
How the Rangers hit against Morton.